This article is taken from the 19th February 2026 Newsletter

MORE FROM MR GILESPY

I was out on Tuesday up north and decided to visit Stapleton Church to see if I could find the gravestone commemorating William Gilespy. To make things easier there is a copy of all the gravestones inscriptions in the church with a plan. So a quick look up in the index and it was outside to count rows, and then number of gravestones and we are there. A red sandstone gravestone similar to most of the others in the churchyard.

Whilst there I had a quick look through the rest of the entries and there was one in the index for Warwick Bridge Inn. When looking it up in the actual transcriptions it was for a William Thompson who had died not at the Inn but the Mill on 20th December 1886, aged 59 years. So it was back outside and a second gravestone photographed.

Unfortunately the relevant part of the inscription is difficult to read due to the ivy.

But who was William Thompson? In 1886 a John Thompson was the miller. He is listed in the 1881 census as miller aged 33, born in Wetheral and not married. The 1871 census has a John Thompson as an apprentice miller aged 20 years and again was born in Wetheral. Is this the same person whose can’t remember their age? So who is William Thompson?

After a search of earlier censuses it has produced a number of possibilities. Non fit exactly with the information available, more information is needed. One of the main problems is John Thompson’s baptism isn’t in Wetheral Church records. Was he baptised at another church? Or were his parents  non conformists? If we can find his baptism then we can find his parents and see if William was his father or was he an older Brother?  Further work required.

After last weeks newsletter a lady who was a relative of William Gilespy got in touch. More about that in a future newsletter hopefully.

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